After two consecutive home losses to conference foes, the Iowa State women’s soccer team grabbed its first conference victory on Friday, with a 2-1 victory over Colorado.

The Cyclones got on the board first, as freshman Erica Florez took a pass from sophomore defender Krissy VanDoorn and scored her eighth goal of the season at 11:22.

Junior forward Shawn Kenyon tied the score for the Buffaloes at 18:50, but the Cyclones responded with another goal, this one from junior midfielder Lindsey Rector.

Rector scored her fifth goal of the season at 40:28 off of assists from sophomores Patti Reed and Krista Odenwald to finish the scoring in the game. Both teams went scoreless in the second half.

Freshman goalkeeper Lynley Hilligoss made 12 saves in the victory, giving her and the team a 6-5-1 overall record, with a 1-3 record in Big 12 play.

“We knew we had to play a very good game, and we did that in the first half,” head coach Cathy Klein said. “We played as well as we’re capable of right now. This is the first game that Lynley (Hilligoss) and Erica didn’t carry us completely, so it feels better that other people are on course and fulfilling their roles.”

Junior defender Alicia Rollison said that after the game-tying goal by Colorado, the team became somewhat apprehensive.

“We got a little bit nervous, but we regrouped and we came back,” Rollison said. “I had a lot of confidence in our forwards. We were really dominating in the first half.”

In the second half of the game, the Cyclones worked to maintain the lead, Florez said.

“We were more concerned with trying to keep the lead than trying to go forward all the time,” Florez said. “We were just trying to maintain possession of the ball and make sure we had numbers back on defense to keep them out of the box from scoring.”

Once the Cyclones grabbed the lead, the squad went out to preserve the win, Klein said.

“We had one senior on the field, and I was screaming like a lunatic trying to make them stay sharp,” Klein said. “There’s a tendency to hide and let the play come to them, and if you do that, any good team in the Big 12 will beat you. When you’re winning, it’s really hard to get your legs to go forward to attack, so I was trying to coerce and cajole them into coming out and playing the second half.”

Nevertheless, the victory marked the first conference win of the season for the Cyclones and a big victory for the team, Rollison said.

“It’s great. It gets you on track because you get discouraged when you lose a couple in a row, so we wanted to come back and show up and we did,” Rollison said.

Klein agreed with Rollison, but adds that next weekend’s games, next Friday at Missouri and next Sunday at Kansas, will help determine the rest of the season for the team.

“I am excited that it’s our first Big 12 win, but we’ve got some things to work on in preserving wins and we’ve got some injuries we need to take care of,” Klein said. “Next weekend will be just as tough and combative, so it’s important we get victories there. We have to win these games if we want to be top four in the conference, and that’s our goal.”